Homilies on John, Homily 41

“Search the Scriptures; for in them you think you have eternal life; and they are the ones that testify of Me. And you will not come to Me so that you may have [eternal ] life.” [1.] Beloved, let us place great value on spiritual things and not think that pursuing them carelessly is enough for our salvation. For if someone cannot gain much benefit from the affairs of this life by handling them casually and haphazardly, this is even more true of spiritual things, since these require still greater attention. So when Christ referred the Jews to the Scriptures, He directed them to do more than simply read them: they were to search them carefully and thoughtfully. For He did not say, “Read the Scriptures,” but, “Search the Scriptures.” Since the sayings about Him required great attention (for they had been concealed from the beginning for the benefit of the people of that time), He now tells them to dig carefully so that they can discover what lies deep below. These sayings were not on the surface or laid out in plain sight, but lay like a treasure hidden very deep. Now someone searching for hidden things will never find what he is looking for unless he searches carefully and works hard. That is why He said, “Search the Scriptures, because in them you think you have eternal life.” He did not say, “You have,” but “you think,” showing that they gained nothing great or lofty from them, since they expected to be saved simply by reading, without adding faith. What He says, then, amounts to this: “Don’t you admire the Scriptures? Don’t you think that they are the source of all life? I now use these to confirm My claims, for they are the ones that testify of Me, yet you will not come to Me so that you may have eternal life.” He therefore had good reason to say, “you think,” because they would not obey but merely took pride in the bare act of reading. Then, to keep His very tender care from making them suspect Him of seeking glory, and to keep His desire for their belief from making them think He was pursuing His own interests (for He reminded them of John’s words, of God’s testimony, and of His own works, and said everything He could to draw them to Him, and promised them “life”), since, as I say, many were likely to suspect that He said these things out of a desire for glory, listen to what He says: Ver. 41. “I do not receive honor from men.” That is, “I do not need it.” “My nature,” He says, “is not the kind that needs honor from men. For if the light of a candle can add nothing to the sun, I am much further from needing honor from men.” “Why, then,” someone asks, “do You say these things if You do not need it?” “So that you may be saved.” He explicitly stated this above, and He implied the same thing here by saying, “so that you may have life.” He also gives another reason: Ver. 42. “But I know you, that you do not have the love of God in you.” For they persecuted Him under the pretense of loving God because He made Himself equal with God, and He knew that they would not believe Him. So, in case anyone should ask, “Why do You say these things?” He says, “I say them to prove this against you: you do not persecute Me out of love for God, if He testifies to Me both through works and through the Scriptures. For just as you previously drove Me away when you considered Me God’s enemy, so now, after I have declared these things, you should have hurried to Me if you really loved God. But you do not love Him. And that is why I have said these things: to show that you are filled with excessive pride, that you boast emptily and cover up your own envy.” And He proves the same thing not only by these things, but also by what would happen later. Ver. 43. “I have come in My Father’s name, and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name, you will receive him.” [2.] Do you see that He declares everywhere that He has been “sent,” that the Father has entrusted judgment to Him, and that He can do nothing of Himself, in order to take away every excuse for their unfairness? But who does He say here will come “in his own name”? He is referring here to Antichrist and giving undeniable proof of their unfairness. “For if you persecute Me because you love God, you should do this much more in Antichrist’s case. For he will neither say that the Father sent him nor that he comes according to His will. Instead, he will do the opposite in everything, seizing like a tyrant what does not belong to him and declaring that he is the very God over all, as Paul says, ‘Exalting himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped, showing that he himself is God.’ ( 2 Thess. ii. 4.) This is what it means to ‘come in his own name.’ I do not do this, but have come in My Father’s Name.” Their refusal to receive One who said that God had sent Him was enough to prove that they did not love God. But now He shows their shamelessness through the opposite fact: they are going to receive Antichrist. For when they refuse to receive One who declares that God sent Him, yet are going to worship someone who does not know Him and who says that he is God over all, it is clear that their persecution arose from malice and hatred of God. For this reason He gives two reasons for His words, beginning with the kinder one: “So that you may be saved,” and, “So that you may have life.” And when they would have mocked Him, He gives the other, more forceful reason, showing that even if His hearers do not believe, God still always does His own works. Now Paul, speaking prophetically about Antichrist, said that “God will send them a powerful delusion—so that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in unrighteousness.” ( 2 Thess. ii. 11, 12.) Christ did not say, “He will come,” but, “if He comes,” out of tenderness for His hearers, and because their stubbornness had not yet reached its full extent. He said nothing about the reason for His coming, but Paul has specifically alluded to it for those who can understand. For he is the one who takes away every excuse from them. Christ then also gives the cause of their unbelief, saying, Ver. 44. “How can you believe, when you receive honor from one another and do not seek the honor that comes from God alone?” Here again He shows that they paid no attention to the things of God, but used this pretense to satisfy their personal feelings. They were so far from doing this for His glory that they preferred honor from men to the honor that comes from Him. How, then, could they take on such hostility for the sake of that honor, which they despised so much that they preferred human honor to it? After telling them that they did not have the love of God, proving it by what was happening in His case and what would happen in Antichrist’s case, and showing that they had no excuse at all, He next brings Moses forward as their accuser, going on to say, Ver. 45–47. “Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father; there is one who accuses you, Moses, in whom you trust. For if you had believed Moses, you would have believed Me; for he wrote of Me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?” What He says amounts to this: “Your conduct toward Me has insulted Moses more than Me, for you have disbelieved him rather than Me.” See how He has left them without any excuse in every way. “You said that you loved God when you persecuted Me; I have shown that you did so out of hatred for Him. You say that I break the Sabbath and abolish the Law; I have cleared Myself of this slander too. You claim that what you dare to do against Me shows your belief in Moses; I show, on the contrary, that this is the strongest expression of disbelief in Moses. For I am so far from opposing the Law that the one who will accuse you is none other than the man who gave you the Law.” Just as He said of the Scriptures, in which “you think you have eternal life,” so He also says of Moses, “in whom you trust,” defeating them everywhere with their own weapons. “And how,” someone says, “is it clear that Moses will accuse us, and that You are not boasting? What do You have to do with Moses? You have broken the Sabbath that he commanded us to keep. How, then, could he accuse us? And what shows that we will believe in someone else who comes in his own name? You make all these claims without evidence.” In fact, all these points have been proved above. “For” (Christ would reply) “since the works, John’s voice, and the Father’s testimony all establish that I came from God, it is clear that Moses will accuse the Jews.” For what does he say? “If a man comes performing miracles and leading you to God, and truly foretelling the future, you must be fully ready to listen to him.” Now Christ had done all this. He truly performed miracles, He drew everyone to God, and He brought His predictions to fulfillment. “But what shows that they will believe someone else?” Their hatred of Christ does, since those who turn away from Him who comes according to God’s will will clearly receive God’s enemy. And do not be surprised that He now brings Moses forward, even though He said, “I do not receive testimony from man,” for He refers them to God’s Scriptures, not to Moses. But since the Scriptures frightened them less, He turns His discussion to the actual person (of Moses), placing their Lawgiver before them as their accuser and so making the terror more powerful. And He refutes each of their claims. Notice: they said that they persecuted Him out of love for God; He shows that they did so out of hatred for God. They said that they held firmly to Moses; He shows that they acted this way because they did not believe Moses. For if they had been zealous for the law, they should have received Him who fulfilled it. If they loved God, they should have believed One who drew them to Him. If they believed Moses, they should have paid homage to One about whom Moses prophesied. “But” (Christ says) “if Moses is disbelieved before My coming, it is no surprise that you would drive Me away, when he is the one who announces Me.” Just as He had shown from their conduct toward Himself that those who admired John (really) despised him, so now He shows that those who thought they believed Moses did not believe him, and turns back on their own heads everything they thought they could offer in their defense. “I am so far,” He says, “from drawing you away from the Law that I call your Lawgiver himself to be your accuser.” He declared that the Scriptures testified of Him, but did not add where they testified, because He wanted to fill them with greater awe, encourage them to search, and make it necessary for them to ask questions. For if He had told them at once, without their asking, they would have rejected the testimony. But as it was, if they paid any attention to His words, they first needed to ask and learn from Him what that testimony was. For this reason He makes more extensive use of assertions and threats, as well as proofs, so that fear of what He says might bring them over even in this way. But even then they remained silent. That is what wickedness is like: whatever someone says or does, it cannot be stirred to move, but remains there, holding on to its own venom. So we must drive all wickedness out of our souls and never devise any deceit again. For someone says, “To the perverse God sends crooked paths” ( Prov. xxi. 8 , LXX.); and, “The holy spirit of discipline will flee deceit, and withdraw from thoughts that lack understanding.” ( Wisd. i. 5.) For nothing makes people so foolish as wickedness. When someone is treacherous, unfair, ungrateful (these are different forms of wickedness), when he hurts someone else without having been wronged himself, when he weaves deceptions, how can he fail to display extreme foolishness? Again, nothing makes people so wise as virtue. It makes them thankful and fair-minded, merciful, mild, gentle, and sincere; it is the mother of all other blessings. And who has more understanding than someone like that? For virtue is the very spring and root of sound judgment, just as all wickedness begins in foolishness. For the insolent person and the angry person fall prey to their respective passions through a lack of wisdom. That is why the prophet said, “There is no health in my flesh: my wounds stink and are festering because of my foolishness” ( Ps. xxxviii. 3, 5 ), showing that all sin begins in foolishness. And so the virtuous person who fears God has more understanding than anyone else. That is why a wise man said, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” ( Prov. i. 7.) If, then, fearing God means having wisdom, and the wicked person does not have that fear, he lacks true wisdom; and because he lacks true wisdom, he is more foolish than anyone. Yet many admire the wicked for their ability to commit injustice and do harm, without realizing that they should consider them the most miserable of all people. While thinking they are injuring others, they thrust the sword into themselves. This is the height of foolishness: to strike yourself without even knowing you are doing it, and to think you are injuring someone else while you are killing yourself. So Paul, knowing that we kill ourselves when we strike others, says, “Why not accept being wronged instead? Why not allow yourselves to be cheated instead?” ( 1 Cor. vi. 7.) For freedom from suffering wrong consists in doing no wrong, just as freedom from being mistreated consists in not mistreating others, though this statement may seem like a riddle to most people and to those who refuse to learn true wisdom. Knowing this, let us not call those who suffer injury or insult miserable or mourn for them, but for those who inflict these things. These are the ones who have suffered the greatest injury, who have made God their enemy and opened the mouths of ten thousand accusers, who are earning a bad reputation in this life and bringing severe punishment on themselves in the life to come. Meanwhile, those they have wronged, who have nobly endured it all, have God’s favor and everyone’s sympathy, praise, and hospitality. Such people will enjoy an exceptionally good reputation in this life, because they provide the strongest example of true wisdom, and in the life to come they will share in the everlasting good things. May we all attain these through the grace and loving kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ. May glory be to the Father and the Holy Spirit with Him, now and forever, and for ages without end. Amen.